The battle for a place in England's Ashes top five is fast resembling a storyline from Game of Thrones — just without the triumphs to go with the bruised egos and thwarted ambitions.

At some point this summer, you would imagine, a top-order batsman other than Alastair Cook or Joe Root has to make a meaningful contribution, and give Australia's bowlers pause for thought before the first Test at Brisbane on November 23.

But that point looked as far away as ever on the first day here, where Mark Stoneman (who made 19), Tom Westley (three) and Dawid Malan (eight) failed to get a toehold on the flight.

Tom Westley was dismissed for three during day one of the second Test against the West Indies

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Like Gary Ballance and Keaton Jennings before them, their struggles have been weirdly at odds with England's success. This side has won four of the five Tests under Root's leadership largely in spite of their misfiring batsmen. Westley, it's true, made a promising 59 on debut against South Africa at The Oval, while Malan hit 65 during the day-night game against West Indies at Edgbaston. But those have been oases in a desert.

In all, the five players have totalled 480 runs in 26 innings at an average of 18.

It is not a statistic on which to plan an assault on Australia. Just as worryingly, mistakes are being replicated. For the fourth time in six Test innings, Westley was out aiming towards mid-on, a flaw well known on the county circuit before England picked him.

Former England captain Alastair Cook went for 11 runs after he was caught by Kyle Hope

Malan succumbed to a loose drive, as he did on the stroke of tea against South Africa at Old Trafford.

And while Stoneman has played only two innings, falling to a beauty from Kemar Roach in his only knock at Edgbaston, his own loose drive against Roach did not inspire much confidence.

It is getting to the stage where the selectors may have to take a punt — though cynics would accuse them of doing precisely that for most of the summer. Stoneman, Westley and Malan will all have the second innings here, plus the final Test at Lord's, to convince the management that they are up to the challenge.

Meanwhile, the last few rounds of the County Championship have assumed greater importance.

Current captain Joe Root produced a strong performance, scoring 59 runs on Friday

Since none of Cook's opening partners this season have reached 50, Lancashire's Haseeb Hameed can clamber back up the pecking order with a hundred or two.

Hameed's early-season travails in county cricket have contributed to England's current mess, but they will need little excuse to pick him again.

Then there's Alex Hales, whose first crack at Test cricket came as an opener and who has since been pigeon-holed as a white-ball specialist. But he said in March he wanted to reinvent himself as a Test match No 4, and has averaged 71 in five Division Two innings for Nottinghamshire.

If the selectors find themselves forced to throw in a player at the Gabba, they could do worse than a batsman with the international experience of Hales. Ballance, meanwhile, was never actually dropped, despite managing only 85 runs in four innings from No 3 against South Africa. His absence from the third Test at The Oval was down to a broken finger.

Alex Hales is someone who could still have a say in England's selection for the Ashes

But many good judges believe he could still prosper two places lower, away from new-ball bowlers who have become adept at exploiting his tendency to hang deep in his crease.

To complicate matters, the management have not quite given up on the Test career of Jos Buttler, who acquitted himself well when asked to bat at No 7 for the final three games in India. If England are looking for a middle-order player capable of taking the game away from Australia in a single session, Buttler and Hales are the likeliest candidates.

This, though, is hardly a debate the selectors expected to be having with a maximum of nine days' Test cricket to go before the Ashes. The Aussies must be hoping it lasts all the way to Brisbane.